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Ace or Ace-Chan (as we have nicknamed him) is a Miniature Australian Shepherd, Blue Merle, with one Blue & one Brownish/Grey Eye!He was born on January 20th 2010 in Alliston, Ontario (Just about 1.5 hours North of Toronto).He arrived at his Forever home to his new human mommy & daddy on March 10th, 2010!

Ace now lives with his mommy (me) in New York! Follow us as we start fresh and have adventures in New York!

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Monday, March 29, 2010

One of the most difficult things with Ace-Chan has been crate training!

Whew!

Because we live in a highly dog populated area, we have him using paper near our front door.

(We don't want to risk him picking up anything from un-vaccinated doggies before his 12 week shots)

Right now we have him on a schedule (we are TRYING to stick with it) during the night.

I set my alarm and take him to his paper at 4 am and then at 6 30am when his daddy gets up.

I am slowly moving the 4 am so that way he will hopefully soon only need to go at 6 30 am!

When we first brought him home he wanted NOTHING to do with the crate :( We put treats inside, toys, everything! He still wouldn't have it. The first 4 or 5 nights I spent on the floor next to his crate with my fingers dangling there like delicious sausages...(puppy bites HURT).

He would cry & whine what seemed like FOREVER! I of course am a sucker and would feel SO terrible! Luckily I didn't give in and let him out *whew*. (only for potty breaks)

In the last week or so we have him (not on his own, he still needs our help) going in his crate and going to sleep at night with minimal to no whining :D yay!

Now that we are mastering nighttime, we need to conquer the day!

Ace is VERY attached to us, he likes to always be with us every second of the day; long gone are the days were you have privacy going to the bathroom :) (we knew that before we got him though haha)

Now the issue...

He screams and barks and cries bloody murder when we put him in his crate during the day! I praise him when I put him in and give him treats, but it seems not to matter to him.

I like to put him in here while I clean and do laundry (He is safe here while I cannot watch him).

Here is Ace acting crazy in his crate! After I put him in, he rolls around, barks, whines, cries, tries to rip his bed, and then finally crawls underneath it and pretends it is a 1000 thread count duvet cover :)

We tried to make his crate comfy with a crate pad & puppy blanket but he decided to redecorate!

His bed is sideways and upside down and the blanket has lots of holes :o

I use the word *QUIET* to try and stop the barking & it works for about 10 seconds haha

He does eventually go to sleep, but after a long and drawn out tantrum. Reading about this, I came across separation anxiety*.

Do other mini aussie parents or just pup parents in general have/had issues with getting their pooches mellow in their crates?

I usually prefer cook books with the completed recipe shown, but I suppose after a Culinary Arts Degree, I should be fine without pictures haha

These are our ingredients laid out!

This is the finished product!

(These are only part of them, I had another sheet in the oven @ the time)

Uh-Oh...notice that one is missing!..I wonder where it went!

There it is! My little Taste Taster! :)

Ace Gobbled his cookie up in a couple of bites!! After he was finished he ran around the living room asking for more...

Only 1 Ace-Chan! I don't want you to spoil your dinner :)

.....sad face....But why????

Overall, they were SUPER easy to make (a little messy while molding them) but they mix up & bake quick! I think I spent about 25 minutes total on these :)

If your pooch likes peanut butter, they will love these!

Ace Chan wasn't a big fan of peanut butter when we first brought him home, I think it was because he had never had it before, now he gobbles it up in an instant!

I make yummy frozen treats for him in the ice cube tray

-Low Sodium Beef Broth with a dollop of peanut butter in the center-

Freeze...and voila! an icey beef broth with a gooey peanut center!

I must say, I loved the feeling of him gobbling up his cookie after I made them! It really showed he enjoyed them! He must have paced through the kitchen about a dozen times before finally setting down for a nap :)

Can't wait to try the other recipes!! Next weekend...Turkey treats! ( a play on Thanksgiving, but in a cookie!) Who doesn't enjoy Thanksgiving?!?! It doesn't matter if it is Spring :)

If anyone has any questions about the recipe or tries it out, let me know how it goes!
*EDIT*
These cookies can be stored in a sealed container (or baggie) for up to 2 weeks!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

We spent our Saturday lounging around eating cookies & playing with Ace of COURSE! :)

The weather was so so (medium coat) weather :(

We went out ( Ace in Arms ) to the cutest pet boutique near our house!

It's called Bark & Fitz. There is this sweet girl who works there and adores Ace so we wanted to bring him by for a visit & pick up a few snacks :)

Our Purchase...

I want to say it is about as big as my hand spread wide open. It is a great size because his mouth is too small to pick it up, he can only roll it.

We were looking for a "Herding" ball for our little guy because not only is the aussie breed stellar at herding, but our lil man has been trying to round up his pig ears and any other toy, not to mention my ankles! :( The only herding ball was about 2 times as big as Ace and we felt it a little ridiculous haha.

This ball is a hard yet flexible rubber (Very bouncy), and it has a little trap door to put treats in! Then as your pup plays with it the treats fall out the other end!! Brilliant! haha

Ace hasn't really caught on to the who roll it for the treat thing yet, but he loves to roll it around our living room already just for the fun of it!!

He played with it SO much that this was what happened....

This is Ace passed out on the lower level of our coffee table :D.

This is def one of the funniest things he does. We have a 2 level glass coffee table and he immediately took to the bottom level & loves to nap there! I have to wipe it down daily to clean the little footprints!

We need to break this habit soon, because once he weights 30 pounds that glass isn't going to be able to hold him!

He is just SO cute though!

If you're looking for a great toy to occupy your pooch, I highly recommend this one! With it being a puzzle, they actually have to work for it! Or if you have a small dog that likes to *try* to herd, this works GREAT also!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

We found Ace-Chan through a breeder. We had been thinking about getting a dog for a long time and decided on a mini aussie! We went and met his parents! His *real* mom is a black tri & his *real* dad is a red merle! We instantly fell in love and awaited his arrival!

When the breeder contacted us that the litter was born on January 20th we picked Ace out and from his picture we just knew he was the one!

We visited him numerous times and they called him Ace right from the beginning! I think maybe that is why he knows his name so well! haha

This is our little Ace-Chan at 10 days!

His eyes aren't even open yet!!

This is our little guy with his litter mates and his doggy mommy!

(Ace is the blue merle in the middle with the black spots only on his right side!)

This is Ace-Chan! We are big anime/Japan lovers and tack *Chan* onto our names as cutesy nicknames! I of course immediately added it onto Ace's name and he now responds better to Ace-Chan than Ace haha! This is our little guy at 9 weeks 1 day while I was setting up his blog!

He is already 7.5 pounds! I am not sure what Mini Aussies weight progression is supposed to be. He eats a ton, but he runs it off around our apartment. If anyone can input how much their mini aussies weighed at around 9 weeks it would be great! I feel like he has grown SO much in the 2 weeks since he has been at home with us!

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About Us!

Our Family consists of a human mommy and my *furry* baby Ace! My Beautiful Blue Merle Miniature Australian Shepherd who inspired me to do this blog! Being a First time puppy parent is certainly an adventure & I wanted to share our journey with you!